The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 1 — Section 422

Revolution, onr etrnggle for existence, our ohastieementa, and our triumphs. Israel's history is the mirror in which every nation mBy view its own, and tm.ce the hand of the Ame world-guiding providence. II. TBE OONl!UIIMATION OF IBRAEL18 BTSTORY. In Jesus the lino of Israel's greatness WIiii continued. He was of the seed of David according to the flesh. There was an echo of glorious memories in him. He came to revive the kingdom of DRvid and the uoendency of Israel, although in a far different way from that expected by hie ooun- trymen. The testimony of the Baptist was mighty in favour of Jesus. No prophet in these latter days had oommanded greater reverence than John the Baptist, the great religious reformer, a preRcher of repentance. Now he had distinctly waived his claims to be the Messiah, and had pointed to Jesus; had retired before him with the most lowly confession of inferiority. When we see a great man sincerely willing to take a sooond place in the presence of a new-comer, it is a witness of the greatest moment to the latter's superiority. The highest human elevation of character-such as John's- can only bend before the Divine. "To you, then," may Paul well say to the Jews, "and that not on the ground of my assertion, but the witness of the greatest man held in honour by you, the second Elijah, is this salvation sent, this good news delivered." II. THE OOJs'DUCT OF THE SA.NHEDRIM TO JESUS EXPLAINED. Paul is aware that he has a great prejudice in the minds of his hearers to overcome-the great "scan~al of the cross." 1. The ignorance of the rulers. They did not understand the voices of the prophets, nor the meaning of the Scriptures constantly read in their synagogues. But their ignorance was little excuse for them. 'l'hey ought to have /mown better. If we choose to look at facts in one light only-that of our wishes or prejudices-we suppress a part of the truth; and when this suppressed truth rises up from an unexpected quarter to confront us, the sense of self-condemnation cannot be overcome. The Sanhedrim saw in Jesus the embodiment of suppressed truth, and they hated him. It was like the uprising of a ghost long thought to have been laid. 2. What they conld not meet with reason they iried to quell by violence. Jesus was tried, with the result of establishing his innocence. No crime, no fault, no disobedience to the Law, no rebellion a.,ua.inst order, could be proved. Yet he was handed to the Roman govemor, and his death was a judicial murder. 3. Thus prophecy was unconsciously fulfilled. A suffering Messiah had been foretold, and had now been revealed in a death of martyrdom. Behind the innocence of the sufferer and the guilt of his murderers a purpose of etemal wisdom and love had wrought and fulfilled itself. It is this insight into Divine thoughts which can alone relieve the dreadful tragedies of human passions and events. While in one point of view the death of Jesus is a scene of horror and of darkness, and the thought of it a scandal to the Jew and a folly to the Greek, in another it is a revelation of a Divine love which conquers hate and forgives even guilty ignorance, a.nd converts a revelation of weakness into a. revelation of wiBdom and of power. III. THE RESURRECTION. Without this crowning fa.et the rest had been incomplete. A sn1fering Messiah would have been a witness of the peoples' sin; a Messiah rising triumphant over death could alone bespeak the victory of Divine love over human hate and sin. Here, then, comes the core of the message. The apostles can never forget that they are " witnesses of the Resurrection." And this was good news-the fulfilment of a promise made to the fathers in olden time. The apostles found in psalms and prophecies of the past which referred in the first instance to events then passing and persons then living, an ideal or prophetic element. "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee;" these words, perhaps referable in the first instance to Solomon, can only in the apostolic thought be properly satisfied in Christ. And so with the other citation. The promise to continue the Divine covenant in the line of the kings is fulfilled above all in Jesus. We must recollect that the kingdom of Judah and the national life as a whole was ideal; that is, it pointed to meanings not at any time within the visible field of experience. If we grasp this thought, it may help us to understand how the apostles viewed Scripture, and how they quoted it; not so much for its literal and primary as for its spiritual and prophetic meaning. The Hoiy One of God was not to see corruption. But J?avid passed away and mixed with dllBt.. It is, then, in David's" greater Son" that this prophecy must be fulfilled, of &ll incorru'ltible and immortal life. OH, XUI, 1-52,) THE AOTB OF' THE APOSTLES. 419